Historical snowstorms in North Carolina in March and April
A rare, late-winter storm will bring half of a foot of snow to the North Carolina mountains and snowflakes to most of the state this weekend, March 11 to 12.
You'd think that snowstorms in March would be extremely rare, at least outside of the mountains, but that's not the case. Here's what I found, with the help of the NCSU Winter Event Database:
There have been 21 storms in March or April since the year 2000 in North Carolina. An additional 13 winter storms spanned March and April from 1980 to 2000 (obviously they may have missed some minor storms in that era due to lack of data). Of those 34 events, 13 were outside the foothills and mountains and 21 of them were after March 12 (only five were in April). Most recently, there were five events in 2014, three of which were outside of the mountains!
The most famous storm, of course, was the Blizzard or "Superstorm" of March 13, 1993, when I lived in Wilkes County, North Carolina (read my story). Another late storm that immediately came to my mind was the April 4, 1987, event -- I remember taking pictures of snow on flowers and flowering trees when we got several inches of snow that day.
What was the latest winter storm since 1960 in North Carolina? April 18 to 22, 1983, when measurable snow fell all the way to Fayetteville, and up to 7 inches was dropped on the North Carolina mountains!
